Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Support MFO
Donate through PayPal
Current Republican Poll Shows A Rather Surprising Leader....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_to_the_Future http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Bart_to_the_Future/Quotes "Lisa: As you know, we've inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump. How bad is it, Secretary Van Houten? Milhouse: [shows a chart] We're broke. Lisa: The country is broke? How can that be? Milhouse: Well, remember when the last administration decided to invest in our nation's children? Big mistake. President Lisa's Aide: The balanced breakfast program just created a generation of ultra-strong super-criminals. Milhouse: And midnight basketball taught them to function without sleep."
People like a fighter, and Trump is certainly that. He also has the uncanny ability to answer any question you give him with 150% confidence like Bill Clinton does, regardless of how truthful or idiotic the answer is.
Those are great qualities to have as a politician.
His problem though will be whether he can stay disciplined enough to not totally nuke his own candidacy by saying something that can't be forgiven. Bill Clinton may do that occasionally but he can pretend to be humble long enough for people to forgive him. I don't think Trump has the ability to do that.
I'm in Ohio, and believe Kasich has a lot to contribute to the national debate. Unfortunately, folks like Trump, Carson, Huckleberry and several others may keep him and other reasonable and realistic candidates off the preliminary debate stage.
That's unfortunate, as we need some discussion of the issues. IMHO of course.
Yes, he and a few other unlikelys. As a born buckeye I was just on a nostalgia tour there and heard a bit about him, including that he's quite the jerk and no one can stand him. A pity if so, as he has some interesting ideas.
Some others will emerge. It cannot be just the clown train up there w HRC et alia.
Clacy said, "He also has the uncanny ability to answer any question you give him with 150% confidence like Bill Clinton does, regardless of how truthful or idiotic the answer is."
LOL - This made me think of: "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is."
Good advice from Ted. But maybe if we can stick to just the entertainment value of politics (without becoming too serious) we can stay out of hot water?
"But when I look at the field of candidates, I find very few that I can support or vote for."
@Maurice- I am not really thrilled about our leading candidate either, and was kinda hoping that your side might come up with a reasonable alternative. Good luck to all of us.
"It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is."
@Hank- Hey man, that's one of my favorite all time quotes. I use it as a signal to folks that my answer to their question might not be all that they were hoping for. cf: "weasel".
@Maurice, One thing I could never understand was why Republicans were so obsessed with Obama's birth certificate and citizenship but didn't seem to care that John McCain was born in Panama when he was running for president.
@Maurice Actually there has been some constitutional debate regarding whether someone born to American parents outside of America is American. This was the case for George Romney, Mitt Romney's father, who was born in Mexico to American parents: abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/how-mitt-romneys-mexican-born-father-was-eligible-to-be-president/ Somehow I think if Obama had been born to American parents but in Kenya there still would have been an uproar about his citizenship.
@David, the interesting thing is Cruz was born both outside of the U.S. and to a Cuban father, yet other than Trump there's been nary a peep about his presidential bid.
@David, I'm not saying Cruz is ineligible to run, though the facts I stated are true. What I'm saying is there hasn't been a mass public outcry about his eligibility like with Obama.
...there hasn't been a mass public outcry about his eligibility like with Obama.
And what political tilt is Cruz? What political tilt are most of the talk radio hosts? Nuff said. It's been an unprecedented smear campaign against Obama since before he was sworn in.
LB, There was no 'mass public outcry' re PotUS. Only to those who listen to AM radio or watch Fox; perhaps you are fretting them overmuch? Lotta loud voices carrying far these years, sigh. Less far by the week, though.
Think previous Vegas chance was Clinton before email scandals and personl pocketing of own funds were slightly above 50 and GOP below 50%... Think 2016 will be a massive most spent elections ever. if there is a recession GOP chances maybe higher. Personally if you think gov does a better job of managing your own $$/then vote for Dem but if think you can manage your $$ better than gov then vote gop
Think previous Vegas chance was Clinton before email scandals and personl pocketing of own funds were slightly above 50 and GOP below 50%... Think 2016 will be a massive most spent elections ever. if there is a recession GOP chances maybe higher. Personally if you think gov does a better job of managing your own $$/then vote for Dem but if think you can manage your $$ better than gov then vote gop
I think that paragraph kind of wound within itself, which is impressive.
As for GOP or DEM, I think part of it comes down to whether or not people have any desire to have Hilary Clinton as president or whether or not people think the idea of Donald Trump as president is truly the Twilight Zone. Neither is appealing - Trump could be terrible but I suppose if we're going to go down the toilet, why not in entertaining fashion. Hilary is corrupt, but thinks rules don't apply to her.
We have different senses of what 'mass' and 'public' and 'outcry' mean, all three terms. Talk about Faux News low-information types.
Whatever. The president will be gone soon enough. The crazies will find something else to be paranoid about. But such voices are getting weaker.
"The crazies" will only get louder, as rather than listening to each other and trying to work together in some form to progress our nation forward, the two parties will call each other names and seem to love getting angry at each other and riled up by the media. Politics in this country has been turned into some kind of rabid near-religious fanaticism. Meanwhile, not a thing gets done.
If Trump does win, the rest of the world will see that we've truly lost it. We'll have gone from electing the first African-American president in this nation's history to electing someone who has made racist comments and is generally a ridiculous relic. I mean, I can only imagine what Trump's foreign policy will be like.
For me, I guess it's trying to figure out the mentality - is Trump leading because people agree with his controversial comments or are they so upset with how things are being run in this country that they're siding with someone who appears as angry as they are? Do people not want another Bush? Given the ratings of the last few seasons of "Apprentice", I don't think Trump has that many fans. I do think that the GOP is unpleasantly surprised by who's leading.
Trying to come to an understanding of their views - whether you agree with them or not - may lead to some broader macro views. Or not. But I (usually) find it compelling to understand where people are coming from, even if I don't agree. The fact that Trump can lead polls - whatever one's feelings are on him - is surprising enough to I think be worthy of some genuine exploration.
Comments
Regards,
Ted
https://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/trump_0425.jpg?quality=65&strip=color&w=950
Kevin
Those are great qualities to have as a politician.
His problem though will be whether he can stay disciplined enough to not totally nuke his own candidacy by saying something that can't be forgiven. Bill Clinton may do that occasionally but he can pretend to be humble long enough for people to forgive him. I don't think Trump has the ability to do that.
It does not matter. There is no universe in which DT will ever be president. Sad about GOP voters; we sure need informed argument, more than ever.
That's unfortunate, as we need some discussion of the issues. IMHO of course.
Some others will emerge. It cannot be just the clown train up there w HRC et alia.
LOL - This made me think of: "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is."
Good advice from Ted. But maybe if we can stick to just the entertainment value of politics (without becoming too serious) we can stay out of hot water?
@Maurice- I am not really thrilled about our leading candidate either, and was kinda hoping that your side might come up with a reasonable alternative. Good luck to all of us.
"It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is."
@Hank- Hey man, that's one of my favorite all time quotes. I use it as a signal to folks that my answer to their question might not be all that they were hoping for. cf: "weasel".
@Maurice- there's hope for you yet, Mo... I had no idea that you had such a sense of humor!
abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/how-mitt-romneys-mexican-born-father-was-eligible-to-be-president/
Somehow I think if Obama had been born to American parents but in Kenya there still would have been an uproar about his citizenship.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/mar/26/ted-cruz-born-canada-eligible-run-president-update/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause
no, RTF link 2.
There was no 'mass public outcry' re PotUS. Only to those who listen to AM radio or watch Fox; perhaps you are fretting them overmuch? Lotta loud voices carrying far these years, sigh. Less far by the week, though.
This is pretty amusing if you like US history:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/opinion/not-like-us.html
We have different senses of what 'mass' and 'public' and 'outcry' mean, all three terms. Talk about Faux News low-information types.
Whatever. The president will be gone soon enough. The crazies will find something else to be paranoid about. But such voices are getting weaker.
I think that paragraph kind of wound within itself, which is impressive.
As for GOP or DEM, I think part of it comes down to whether or not people have any desire to have Hilary Clinton as president or whether or not people think the idea of Donald Trump as president is truly the Twilight Zone. Neither is appealing - Trump could be terrible but I suppose if we're going to go down the toilet, why not in entertaining fashion. Hilary is corrupt, but thinks rules don't apply to her. "The crazies" will only get louder, as rather than listening to each other and trying to work together in some form to progress our nation forward, the two parties will call each other names and seem to love getting angry at each other and riled up by the media. Politics in this country has been turned into some kind of rabid near-religious fanaticism. Meanwhile, not a thing gets done.
If Trump does win, the rest of the world will see that we've truly lost it. We'll have gone from electing the first African-American president in this nation's history to electing someone who has made racist comments and is generally a ridiculous relic. I mean, I can only imagine what Trump's foreign policy will be like.
For me, I guess it's trying to figure out the mentality - is Trump leading because people agree with his controversial comments or are they so upset with how things are being run in this country that they're siding with someone who appears as angry as they are? Do people not want another Bush? Given the ratings of the last few seasons of "Apprentice", I don't think Trump has that many fans. I do think that the GOP is unpleasantly surprised by who's leading.
Trying to come to an understanding of their views - whether you agree with them or not - may lead to some broader macro views. Or not. But I (usually) find it compelling to understand where people are coming from, even if I don't agree. The fact that Trump can lead polls - whatever one's feelings are on him - is surprising enough to I think be worthy of some genuine exploration.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/03/polling-medicare/37599/